When the Friar had finished telling his story the Summoner grew
wild with anger and shook like an aspen leaf. He declared that he
would now tell his tale to repay the Friar. It is hardly astonishing
that the Friar is so familiar with hell since Friars are in league
with fiends. The Summoner relates a story about a Friar who
dreamt that he had been taken to hell by an angel. However he
didnít see any Friars there and asked the angel whether Friars
always go to heaven. The angel then showed him the torture
chamber of more than a million Friars in Satanís arse. The Friar
quaked in terror and awoke to his relief. The Summoner prayed
for all the Friars except the damned Friar present among them.

The Summonerís Tale

Summary

There lived a limiter in Holderness, a marshy region in
Yorkshire, who used to go around preaching to people and
begging for alms. One day after preaching his regular sermon to
donate money for the masses of the dead, the Friar exhorted to
the parishioners that instead of squandering it elsewhere they
should contribute money for the building of sacred edifices.
After his fiery sermon the Friar went around the parish begging
for alms and wrote down the names of the contributors who had
paid, promising to pray on their behalf. His servant accompanied
him on these rounds carrying a sack to hold whatever
contributions the people made. However as soon as the Friar got
out of the parishionerís door he would rub out every single name
that he had written on the tablets earlier.

The Friar then came to the house of Thomas who had been bedridden due
to illness. The sick man mildly criticized the Friar for not having called
on him for almost a fortnight. The Friar falsely replied that he had been
praying hard for Thomasí salvation during that time. He told him that
he had preached about the virtue of Christian charity in the parish church
and then inquired about his wife.

The manís wife soon came in and the Friar gallantly hugged her and kissed
her sweetly while he praised her beauty. The Friar told her that he would
like to preach to Thomas since it is his special skill. The manís wife
asks the Friar to talk to her husband about his mercurial temperament
and crabbiness. Before leaving the good wife asked the Friar what he would
like to have for dinner. The Friar hypocritically replied that he just
wanted a simple homely meal but suggested a menu fit for a feast. The
wife added one short word before leaving. She told the Friar that her
baby had died two weeks earlier. Thereupon the Friar quickly replied that
he had seen a vision of the baby being carried up to heaven within half
an hour of his death. The other Friars had also seen this vision. They
had then sung Te Deum and had also fasted. The Friar then proceeded to
deliver a long lecture about the benefits of fasting and abstinence from
worldly delights. He illuminated his lecture with the examples of Moses
who fasted for 40 days, Aaron who fasted before offering prayers, and
Christ who prayed and fasted for forty days. Thus he said the prayers
of Friars who fast and lead a life of poverty are more acceptable to God
than those offered by ordinary people.

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Turning to Thomas the Friar launched into a didactic discourse praising
the virtues of leading a life of poverty. He told Thomas that the prayers
of such holy, chaste and poor Friars swooped upwards into Godís ears.
He then told Thomas that their entire convent prayed for his health day
and night. Therefore he should show his gratitude by donating some of
his gold for the improvement of the convent. But Thomas was not impressed
and bluntly replied that the prayers had not done him any good despite
the fact that he had spent his entire money on all kinds of Friars.

The Friar immediately pointed out Thomasí fallacy of seeking out all
kinds of Friars. He tells him that the reason why his prayers didnít have
any noticeable effect was because he didnít give him enough. He had diluted
the effectiveness of the Friarís prayers by giving a load of oats to one
convent, twenty-four goats to another convent and a penny each to many
Friars. Instead Thomas should have concentrated his donations to him alone
in order to ensure efficacy. The Friar then proceeded to preach against
anger. He tells him to be patient with his wife since innumerable men
have lost their lives through quarrelling with their wives. An angry woman
only desires vengeance. Moreover anger is one of the seven deadly sins
and only spells destruction. He points out Senecaís account of how an
angry magistrate unjustly ordered three innocent Knights to be executed.
Cambysses who had a choleric temperament betted with a Knight that excessive
drink did not affect judgement. Accordingly he drank heavily and killed
the Knightís innocent boy. Similarly the Persian Cyrus drained the entire
river of Gysen out of anger simply because his horse had drowned in it.
And the wise Solomon had advised never to befriend an angry man. The Friar
wound up his homily by telling Thomas to restrain his anger and instead
make a confession. But Thomas replied that he had already confessed to
the parish priest. The Friar then urged him to donate gold for building
a monastery. This angered Thomas all the more. However he agreed to give
something if the Friar promised to divide it equally among all the twelve
members of his convent. The Friar readily agreed to do so. Thomas then
told the Friar to reach down and feel beneath his buttocks for the gift.
As soon as the Friar put his hand Thomas let out a thunderous fart. The
Friar was enraged at being tricked and left vowing to take revenge.

The Friar then went to the house of the lord of the village. After having
dinner he furiously relates how he had been tricked into accepting a fart
that had to be divided among all the members of his chapter. The lord
mulled over the impossibility of dividing the noise of the fart into twelve
equal parts. He told the Friar to forget the mad fellow. However the Lordís
Squire, Jankin, who was standing near the table heard the entire incident
and explained that the fart could be divided equally by seating 12 Friars
around a cartwheel, each with his nose at the end of a spoke, and making
the old man let off the fart from the center. The lord and lady, in fact
everybody except the Friar, agreed with Jankinís proposal and rewarded
him with a new gown.

Notes

The Summonerís Tale is an attack on his worst enemy the Friar. The Friars
were an immensely despised lot of the fourteenth century England. Friars
were mendicants and were supposed to live a life of poverty. They had
to be dependent on the charity of the people and were in return expected
to preach and set examples by doing good works. However Friars became
corrupt and extracted money from the poor people by deceiving them. The
Summoner exposes the true colors of the Friars through his retaliatory
tale.

The Summoner describes a deceitful Friar in his tale who does not stop
at anything to extract money from the people. He exposes the hypocrisy
of the Friar through ironic portraiture. The Friar is shown to be insincere,
perfidious, gluttonous, greedy, dissolute, terribly hypocritical and dishonest.
For instance, while the Friar holds forth on the virtues of leading a
simple life, he suggests a lavish menu for dinner in the same breath.
He preaches to Thomas against anger but is himself thunderously angry
when the latter tricks him into accepting a fart. He obviously does not
think much about the monastic vow of celibacy and kisses Thomasí wife
passionately and praises her beauty. In brief, the Friarís conduct violates
all his monastic vows of poverty, religiosity and celibacy. He is only
concerned about augmenting his own welfare and does not care the least
about his patrons. He sweet - talks the people into giving donations but
does feel obliged to pray for their souls. The Summoner has thus drawn
the figure of an archetypal corrupt Friar in his tale. Chaucer has satirized
the entire community of Friars through this tale.

It is evident that both the Friar and the Summoner hate each other passionately
and wish each other to be damned. But while the Friarís tale was subtler
in its sarcasm, the Summonerís tale is coarse and ends with a preposterously
vulgar riddle about dividing a fart among the twelve members of the Friarís
chapter. This points out the Summonerís grossness of character. However
it is difficult to determine who is the worst among the two.